The Era of Gods - Chapter 209

Chapter 209: Chapter 209: Magical Tricks
 

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This can be explained as a matter of luck, where destiny includes both luck and misfortune as two powerful subordinate godhoods, and foreseeing one’s own future certainly aligns with the lucky aspect.

“Woo, I’m so envious!”

Luck and misfortune, just the roles of these two subordinate godhoods are immensely powerful, and they are the kind that nobody dares to mess with. It really is enviable.

If possible, Lin Xiao would really want to choose both supreme godhoods, but reason tells him that even choosing one right now is quite a challenge. He must madly collect divinity in these two years and must condense enough divinity to carry the Truth Divine Position before college entrance exam. Otherwise, he would be in big trouble.

Fortunately, choosing a godhood doesn’t mean it’s fixed at that moment. In the future, when one becomes a demigod and gains more divinity, they can still select other godhoods when they’ve gathered enough divinity.

Having composed himself, Lin Xiao closed the Divine Extraordinary Ability panel.

At his current Divinity Level 3, theoretically, he could choose three extraordinary abilities. However, Lin Xiao felt that selecting too many was useless; it was better to enhance the existing ones to Level 3 to make them stronger.

Among them, the Reproduction Divine Extraordinary Ability, which comes from the law of creation, cannot be upgraded. The only ability that can be upgraded is the predictive art.

The upgrade method is simple, advancing on the existing basis as long as the divinity level meets the requirements.

With Lin Xiao’s Divinity Level 3, he upgraded his predictive art to Lv3 in one breath. The resulting Extraordinary Predictive Art Lv3 had far more potent effects than the basic version, predicting events more clearly and coming with two passive abilities, adding one with each level increase.

Level 2 passive ability: Omen.

When predicting events related to oneself, it is often easier to obtain more detailed information.

Predictive art is an active ability, capable of foreseeing both oneself and others, performing better when foreseeing one’s own situation.

Level 3 passive ability: Trajectory.

All things leave traces as they move through time, and during the prediction, it’s possible to see the traces left by the subject within a day.

Level 1 predictive art is passable, but at Level 3, the effects are formidable. Simply knowing the target’s general information or even a name can be enough to track their last known location, being very useful in different worlds.

For instance, during the previous Summer Camp exchange, if he had Level 3 predictive art, the unique title of Semi-god Vampire in the current plane would have been enough to locate where the opponent disappeared to in the last instance.

After resetting the Divine Extraordinary Abilities, the next step is to select Divine Arts anew.

As a Level 3 Divine Being, Lin Xiao could theoretically bestow upon his priest followers up to Level 3 Divine Arts, meaning he could choose either standard Divine Arts common to all, or spend Divine Power to research unique Divine Arts of his own.

Standard Divine Arts refer to a set system of Divine Arts developed by the gods of the Main World over thirty thousand years, ranging from the lowest First Level to the highest Ninth Level. There are no standard legendary Divine Arts, but there are templates. Divine Territory Players, after achieving deification, can apply these templates to create their own unique Legendary Divine Arts based on their positions.

Generally speaking, during the Divine Being stage, the Divine Arts a Divine Territory Player can possess are limited to their Divinity Level. The higher one’s Divinity Level, the higher the cap.

However, once one’s divinity coalesces into a godhood to become a demigod, regardless of the Divinity Level, one can possess up to Sixth Level Divine Arts to bestow upon priesthood followers, even if they become a demigod with a mere five points of divinity.

It’s well-known that the Demigod Stage is divided into two classifications: Normal Demigod and High-Level Demigod. The situation with Supreme Demigods is very special and is generally not included in this consideration.

A High-Level Demigod can possess Seventh Level Divine Arts, but cannot possess higher levels. No Demigod can have Eighth Level Divine Arts, not even a Supreme Demigod.

Yet, once a Divine Territory Player achieves divine enthronement, they can immediately gain access to Eighth and Ninth Level Divine Arts and can bestow Tenth Level Legendary Divine Arts upon Legendary Priest followers.

Of course, this is far removed from Lin Xiao’s current position, being merely a slight Divine Being capable of choosing nine First Level Divine Arts, six Second Level Divine Arts, and three Third Level Divine Arts.

His current selection naturally consists of standard Divine Arts, as creating one’s own Divine Arts demands a high quantity of Divine Power, something he doesn’t have an excess of right now.

After browsing the extensive Divine Art Library, he quickly made his choices.

Nine First Level Divine Arts:

The ‘Misfortune Art’, which induces fear and hesitation in enemies.

The ‘Blessing Art’, which fills allies with courage and causes their attacks to inflict additional damage.

The essential ‘Cure Minor Injuries’ for priests.

The ‘Grace Spell’, which adds a small amount of constitution and strength to allies.

The ‘Holy Light Art’, which inflicts holy damage on the target.

‘Protect Evil’, which offers high defense against evil damage.

‘Remove Fear’, which ensures allies are not afraid.

The ‘Shield of Belief’, creating a flash of light to protect allies.

The ‘Summon Monster Level 1’, which can summon a heavenly realm dog.

Six Second Level Divine Arts:

The ‘Bear’s Endurance’, adding four points of constitution to any ally.

The ‘Bull Strength’, adding four points of strength to any ally.

The ‘Owl Wisdom’, bestowing four points of intelligence to any ally.

The ‘Eagle Glamour’, granting four points of charisma to any ally.

The ‘Cure Medium Wound’, capable of healing allies or causing damage to the undead.

The ‘Regeneration Barrier’, creating a shield that protects allies from undead spells.

Three Third Level Divine Arts:

The ‘Cure Serious Wound’, healing allies or dealing significant damage to undead beings.

The ‘Dispel Magic’, which removes magical effects from a designated target.

‘Remove Curse’, lifting one curse effect from a target.

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A total of eighteen divine arts, Lin Xiao considered them to be some of the most effective at this stage, incorporating attack, defense, healing, and status enhancement.

“Perfect!”

Having chosen the divine arts, the next natural step was to bestow followers with the priestly rank, but before that, he needed to select the believers and confer upon them the priestly status.

The Priest is a unique profession within The Church of Divinity, yet there is no so-called Priest Profession Card. Instead, a deity must choose and confer this profession upon someone. Every Divine Territory Player can do this, though typically not in great numbers, since becoming a Priest requires devout faith and the expenditure of Divine Power.

Moreover, the consumption of Divine Power is not a one-time affair; it is determined by the level of the Priest.

Which means that initial conferment requires a certain amount of Divine Power, and the Priest needs additional Divine Power to rise each level. Ascending to a level nine Priest requires Divine Power to be expended nine times. Fortunately, bestowal of the Priest’s Divine Arts does not consume Divine Power.

The initial conferment of the Priest profession requires a bit of Divine Power, namely one million Power of Faith, and it must be pure.

This…

Lin Xiao currently has enough Power of Faith to convert into one hundred and forty-six points of Divine Power, which is one hundred forty-six million pure Power of Faith, accumulated over this period of time.

Without hesitation, he communicated with Slarda and summoned the makeshift Church to gather at the Creator’s Temple in the center of Naga City.

He consumed twenty-one points of Divine Power to confer upon Slarda and the initial twenty part-time priests the true rank of Priest.

Then, he expended another sixty-six points of Divine Power to promote them all to Level 3 Priests and individually bestowed upon them all the divine arts.

With the Priests selected and the divine arts chosen, Lin Xiao then reaffirmed the name of his Church—The Church of Creation and Truth.

Once this was decided, it was final; it could not be changed on a whim afterward.

The method of worship within the Church also changed accordingly, transforming from a combination of ancestor worship and primitive religion to a pure religious form. Having made this decision, Lin Xiao opened the sect interface—

Sect Interface:

Sect: The Church of Creation and Truth

Holy Emblem: A Supreme Naga holding a book in one hand and a sword in the other, surrounded by a divine aura

Worship: Religious faith.

Chosen People: Not selected, (requires 100 Divine Power)

Divine Arts: Nine Level 1 Divine Arts, six Level 2 Divine Arts, three Level 3 Divine Arts.

Priests: 21 in total.

For a start, the setup looked quite professional. Twenty-one Priests were enough for now, and as the Clan grew, more could be added as necessary.

Closing the panel, the restructuring of the Divine Realm was essentially complete. The next goal was the swift development of the Divine Realm, while simultaneously creating a set of simple church doctrines.

Creation did not need deliberate dissemination; wider spread of this knowledge wouldn’t be particularly meaningful since the most effective way to increase his understanding of this fundamental law was his own research and mastery over the rules of Creation. No amount of spread would enhance his understanding of this foundational law.

Through a divine-mandate, Lin Xiao instructed Slarda to find ways to increase the dissemination of the Tower of Truth, and set the core ideology of the Church to be Truth, looking to spread this concept as much as possible.

Gaining the actual Truth was a different matter, not so easily achieved, but before that, securing a divine position came first.

Stepping out of the Divine Realm, he saw that many classmates had finished, while some remained inside.

Doctor Sun, the teacher, was still present, answering questions from some students.

At the Rank 2 high school stage, there was one lecture each week, which effectively spanned an entire day.

The morning was mostly spent on this matter, and since it seemed Doctor Sun had nothing else of urgency, Lin Xiao returned to his Divine Realm.

It wasn’t until months later in the Divine Realm that he heard a familiar bell ring, and upon returning to the classroom, he realized it was already afternoon. Doctor Sun was ringing a bell to wake everyone up.

Once everyone had awakened from their Divine Realms, Doctor Sun leisurely pointed at the front, and a series of book titles appeared on the screen before Lin Xiao—

“Principles of Magic.”

“Dissection and Detailing of Magic.”

“Relationships Between Various Spells.”

“Ten Thousand Variations on Level Zero Tricks.”

“Complete Collection of Level Zero Tricks.”

“Detailed Introduction to Basic Level 1 Magic.”

“How to Become an Apprentice Mage.”

“Detailed Introduction to Basic Alchemy.”

“A Hundred Thousand Whys of Magic…”

Lin Xiao gaped as he scrolled from top to bottom, each page containing a hundred titles, making up seven altogether, filled with various magic-related disciplines and their catalogues.

That’s when Doctor Sun’s voice sounded:

“Included here are all the standard spells from Level Zero to Level Nine, as well as their corresponding extended disciplines, including Alchemy, scroll transcription, magic item crafting and other additional magic-related disciplines. Your task for Grade 11 theory classes is to master all the standard spells researched by the gods of the Main World over thirty thousand years and to choose an elective from the extended disciplines.”

“Ah…”

This was somewhat terrifying.

Lin Xiao randomly opened one of the catalogues, and the sheer volume of content inside was frightening—millions of words in total to be learned in one year. The content was overwhelming.